Criticism, Self-Criticism, and a few other things.

David Schanoes dmsch at attglobal.net
Wed Jan 1 10:19:15 PST 2003


Ahh, there's the kernel. Material forces always trump intentions good or otherwise. But to limit the impact of those forces to an abstracted portion of society, say all those born after 1945, is to transform material forces into some sort general character flaw.

----- Original Message ----- From: "Carl Remick" <carlremick at hotmail.com> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Wednesday, January 01, 2003 10:17 AM Subject: Re: Criticism, Self-Criticism, and a few other things.


> >From: Carrol Cox <cbcox at ilstu.edu>
> >
> >Carl Remick wrote:
> > > [clip]
> > > Hmm, I thought Marxism was the "ruthless criticism of all that
exists."
> >How
> > > do you define "all"?
> >
> >"All" means the basic structure of society in this case, the
> >historically determinate social relations which constitute us and which
> >we need to transform/throw off. Marx was contrasting such criticism to
> >the writing of recipes for the cook shops of the future -- i.e., two
> >kinds of theoretical work. It does not mean merely finding people to
> >blame for all our troubles. It's easy to sneer at suv-owners, academics,
> >bush-voters, or mythical categories such as "baby boomers" but it hardly
> >contributes to the ruthless criticism marx called for.
>
> Sure it does. Boomers, e.g., are no more mythical than any other
historical
> age cohort; generations are profoundly shaped by their common experiences
in
> facing wars, depressions, etc. The Vietnam War and the civil rights
> struggles of the sixties sensitized many boomers to major issues of social
> justice. But the generation's broad interest in social progress and
protest
> simply mutated into a sterile, narcissistic pursuit of individual
> enlightenment or into the many appalling forms of hip capitalism, e.g.,
MTV.
> All of this provides rich subject matter, IMO, for discussing how
material
> forces trump good intentions.
>
> Carl
>
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